Monday...another manic monday

Luke 13:31-35

There may be some of us reading this that remember that 80's song by the Bangles, I think it was call Manic Monday. I'm not really a big fan, but as I read this weeks gospel and the words that come before it and after it, I was left feeling manic.

Last week, the beginning of Lent, was about being in the desert. Part of the desert experience is the desire for an oasis, and this is where we are led in the lectionary. Well, Jerusalem isn't really an oasis though is it? In an e-mail, Matt called it the anti-oasis. We find Jesus in the city teaching about the least important people in society ending up ahead of the most important when all is said and done. The response by the Pharisees? The tell him to leave because Herod is going to kill him. It might seem that the Pharisees are trying to help Jesus, but with the end in mind, he tells him he wants to stay in the city known for killing prophets thus joining in that illustrious lineage.

Imagine the stress. Imagine the weariness. In some ways it isn't hard on a day like a Monday to identify with Jesus. Jesus learns that someone powerful is out for his head. He is reinforced with the desire of the Pharisees for him to get out of town. We are struck by Jesus' desire to do what he has to do even though he isn't wanted and even though people are actually making it hard for him to do his work.

My Monday doesn't seem so bad I guess. I have deadlines hanging over my head for work. I have a paper due that I didn't work hard enough on. I have to ride the bus into the city to go to class that I haven't done the reading for yet. I have phone calls to make to vendors to fix an apartment up so someone will be willing to live there for just under $900 a month. What is your Monday like? Was Jesus just having a case of the Monday's in our text for the week? It seems that Jesus life was just one big Monday. Did Jesus every get to enjoy the comforts I enjoy, even on what is often considered the worst day of the week? I mean I have work that pays for my rent. I get to ride a bus to take me where I need to go. I get to go to a middle class, white, seminary where I can solve the problems of my own heart along with that of the church and even the world.

Monday is a symbol of the urban anti-oasis that Jesus experienced. But Jerusalem isn't just a continuation of the desert either. In the desert, we have nothing. In the city there is an abundance of everything. Though the writers of this blog live in Seattle, not all of us identify with the city life Jesus is experiencing this week. We all have oasis's that we construct that are more like anti-oasis's. Think of your home, apartment, car, the internet or whatever oasis from the desert of your life and ask whether it provides the comfort and relief you need or if it offers the hostility and pain that Jesus experienced in Jerusalem? So what do we do with this hostility? What do we do with our illusions of relief? Is life comfortable or painful for you?

For me, it is both comfortable and painful, but if I'm honest my comfort is false and pain is always with me. The oasis that I create, just creates more hostility not relief. If this is true for you, then what are we to do? I'm going to follow Jesus and do what I do. I will go on my way, which if I'm at my best will be the way of Jesus as well. I'll just keep on keepin on as the saying goes. I mean what good is it to run away now? We're in it. This is Lent. This is the long journey to the Cross and the Grave. This is the journey of death. Feels like a Monday huh? We've got a long week to struggle and wrestle, but the Resurrection is also at the end of this journey through deserts and cities. Grace and Peace to you, to us all, on the journey this week.